Monk on a new server: STR or STA?
 

I’m looking forward to rolling a monk when green starts. No gear, no plat, no problem.

The wiki suggests that STR may be a good start for monks on a fresh server. However, I’m still tempted to dump all my points into stamina. Or maybe a 10/10 split?

Thoughts?

Playing til Kunark or beyond? Stamina

strength imo

Definately charisma so when Kunark introduces Iksar Monks you can still talk your peers into letting you join their groups.

Strength will see the most immediate benefit by far...especially a fresh server where your gear is going to by abysmally bad for a long, long time.

If you're going for the ulra-long-haul on green....make a better solo / money making character at launch and save all your plat for when Kunark is released. Make an Iksar monk w/ 25 STA and equip your twink gear at level one and enjoy the min/max.

Stamina, your job is to pull and more hp means more chance for survival, especially when your fd fails and you get nuked. An extra 40 hp at lower levels may not seem like much, but it's everything when it's your last 40hp. Leave the dps to other classes.

stam by far

all sta or some str and rest go to sta

dont think you can go wrong with any str/sta combo

In early eq there is a paucity of both high quality weapons and strength gear. While carry capacity is less important for monks as their gear as light and they already face penalties, the impact on damage output is significant while leveling.

The min/max meta culture of p99 raiding generally means most people will recommend stamina but I disagree. The extra hp from going full stamina will very rarely if ever be what makes or breaks a character. Smart play, buffs, and eventually gear (as new expansions open up) are significantly more important. Melee classes in classic will already start off with a huge crutch compared to casters.

It’s a quality of life issue for the long haul through original classic imo.

Long term with raiding and velious in mind? Sure stamina. For the first 50 levels and for most routine content beyond str has value. At low levels the returns on stamina are pitiful. By the time the returns are more meaningful, better gear and buff options are as well.

Full disclosure: I’m the weirdo that put 0 starting points into stamina on my warrior. I have no regrets as the stamina difference never made a survivability difference and I knew hitting cap stamina/dex would be easier dumping into dex. My gear isn’t phenomenal but I’m still now just 15-20 points from capping that too.

I disagree. The extra strength on a monk doesn't add up to a ton more in benefits since at 80+ whatever gear you have that boosts strength will be sufficient to never be encumbered, and since you're a monk, you'll likely be investing in weight reduction bags anyway and you'll be focusing on keeping weight down to avoid the ac penalties, so carrying stuff won't be a problem; which leaves improving DPS as the only reason to have more strength. If you're grouping, you're probably going to be doing more running around than dpsing anyway for the pulls and if you're soloing, the extra 20 strength won't make much of a difference because you're likely still going to be waiting 6 minutes between mobs to have Mend up for the fight, so it makes little difference if you can kill something 10% faster. And even if you're duoing, you're probably doing it with someone who is going to buff your strength anyway. The extra HP, however little it is, is still a huge boon for surviving splits.


And also, as a warrior, having as much stamina as you can is ideal at the very least because it gives you a larger buffer for zerking.